The unusual creature emerged from its chrysalis July 10, according to the museum's blog, Beyond Bones.

Celeste Poorte, butterfly rearing coordinator for the Cockrell center, who wrote the blog post about the rare specimen, described it as genetically male on the right side but female on the left. The condition is known as gynandromorphy, she said.

"Gynandromorphy is the result of a genetic mutation," she wrote. "It is an extremely rare condition and a topic of interest to researchers."

This particular butterfly belongs to the Great Southern White species, which is found in the southeastern United States and Central and South America, Poorte said.

This species is "sexually dimorphic," meaning the male and female look different, the female having darker, grayer wings than the male, she said.

This mixed-up butterfly has a protrusion on the right side of the abdomen, which is a single "clasper."

Claspers, which are usually found in pairs on males, are used by males to grip onto the female during mating, Poorte wrote.

All sexually reproducing organisms begin as a single cell, from the fusion of a sperm and egg. The cell then divides many times to produce all the cells in the body, Poorte noted in the blog post.

The mutation that produces a specimen of two sexes is the result of an error occurring during one of the very first cell divisions, she said.

"The Cockrell Butterfly Center is lucky to have raised a butterfly with such a rare condition so we can all learn about the pecularities of the natural world," she wrote.